Have you ever sat at home in complete boredom, wondering what you could do to cure this boredom? Well, today I present to you small and relatively simple hobbies that have kept my boredom subdued. Although a lot of these will feel childish, they are fun, rewarding, cheap, and can be done with your friends too!

Pearler Beads:

If you’ve never heard of these, pearler beads are little plastic beads that can be placed on little pegs. After you finish your design, you take an iron and melt the beads together. People make magnets, wall decor, even jewelry with pearler beads, although in my opinion I do not like how jewelry with them look. They are fairly cheap; you are able to buy a bucket of assorted colored beads at Walmart for around $10. There are more than enough beads in these buckets to last a lifetime. My 36 year old mother has a new found obsession with these. Here are a few little things I have created:

Paper Mache:

You can make literally anything with enough cardboard and paper. Do you have an absurd amount of papers in your bookbag from last semester? Instead of just throwing them away, (we all know you’re not recycling them,) go get yourself a small thing of glue, pour some glue into a cup with water, mix-her-up, rip up those unnecessary school papers, and sculpt. But first, you need to make a frame for your masterpiece. It is almost impossible to stay away from cardboard, so grab a box and utilize it. I am currently working on a giant ladybug for my room. It is almost completely free to do this activity, unless you have to buy the glue. 

Painting: 

Acrylic paint is pretty cheap, and as someone who has painted their whole life, I don’t think I’ve ever bought myself “good” paint. It doesn’t matter what paint you get, as long as you figure out how to work with it, you’ll be able to paint any scene of your imagination onto a canvas in no time. You get a decent sized canvas, and paint at the Dollar Store for fairly cheap. If you understand how color theory works, then you should be able to get away with just red, blue, yellow, black, and white paint. For all of that, you can spend less than $20. By far my favorite activity that you can do with friends, significant others, or by yourself if you’re really that lonely. 

Pipe cleaners:

Have you ever wanted to get your significant other flowers but realize that nice flowers cost a lot of money? Well you can make just as gorgeous and even more sentimental flowers with pipe cleaners. I’ve done this myself and they always turn out so cute. You can make other things out of pipe cleaners like little animals or plants. It is a little tedious, and you might poke yourself a few times, but it is worth it. You can get a pack of assorted colored pipe cleaners at Michael’s for just under $3.